cason & colleen: 2013

Wow. We’re the worst. I had every intention of keeping this site updated with monthly-ish posts, but it has been 6 months since we last blogged. I can’t believe it! Actually, I can believe it, but I do wish we’d make more time. Having a new house and baby definitely makes finding time more difficult! Anyway, here’s a brief recap of the last few months with lots of Cashel pictures:

Our happy boy

Cashel is pretty much a little boy now, which is crazy. If you follow us on Facebook or Instagram, you’ll know that he is the world’s happiest, and possibly most photographed, little guy. We love him so much and it has been a privilege to parent him together. It has been so much fun to watch him grow up, develop a personalty, and become more mobile and independent. Colleen sometimes bemoans all this, asking "What happened to my little baby boy?!?!", but for the most part we are loving having an almost-toddler.

Cashy started crawling around 8 months old, at the end of April, and his (and our!) world changed almost instantly. He went from a calm baby who loved just to chill, and who loved nothing more than to sit and watch us, to a boy who is curious about, and into, everything. He loves to bang doors, climb up the stairs, try to share Indy’s food, stalk the cat that we are babysitting, and bee-line for the refrigerator whenever it is open.

Cashy loves acrobatics!

He is hilarious, and we all laugh all the time. One of his favorite things in the world, behind spaghetti, pickles, strawberries, our dog Indy, and bottom-dropping his parents as they try to sleep-in, is being tossed and spun in all directions. I’d definitely be a bit woozy being swung around by my feet, but he is mostly fearless and is shaping up to be a little daredevil.

We’re trying to teach him sign language to communicate, and so far his only consistent sign is “more,” which he uses almost exclusively for food and acrobatics. However, this past Saturday I was gone all day at a soccer coach training, so I called Colleen and she put me on speaker phone. Cashel ambled over, looked behind the phone to see if I was hiding there, then starting signing “more”... “more Daddy.” Man, I love that kid.

Cashel loves his momma

Cashel loves his family, and typically gets out-of-control excited whenever we video chat with either set of Grandparents or one of his Aunties. We’ve been fortunate to have lots of family and friends come visit, and we’re glad that Cashel is such a social person... though sometimes it can be difficult since he doesn’t like to go to bed when things are going on and his “audience” is still available.

He loves to give wet, opened mouth, tongue-out kisses, and will mostly do so upon request.

The last week of May, all 3 of the Ramsay kids & spouses & kids & dogs headed home to Wooster to spend a week at John and Eileen’s recently renovated old family farmhouse. There were 8 adults, 3 kids, and 3 dogs all under one roof, and though it was hectic at times - nay, possibly because it was hectic - we had a blast. It was the perfect year for a “staycation,” especially for “the boys,” who were 9 and 10 months then, since they wore each other out speed-crawling from room to room and (of course) always wanting the toy that the other one was playing with.

The Ramsay Family

Curly Boys: Cashel and his cousin, Graham

Mr. Curious chasing the chickens around the yard

In non-Cashel related news, we’ve been enjoying our house and have kept busy fixing it up as much as possible. This spring we’ve focused the work on the backyard, where I’ve built raised beds and other gardening apparatus, added a privacy fence, built a chicken coop out of old pallets to house our 5 chickens, built a bench out of old fence panels, and a few other things. It has been so much fun to work on a place that feels permanent, but the never-ending list of projects takes up time and money. We’re finally feeling like we’re to the place that we can comfortably enjoy our backyard, so we enjoy most evenings sitting out in the shade, usually grilling dinner and getting what we can out of our own garden, while Cashel plays in (i.e. tries to eat) grass and our plethora of animals roam. Not much to complain about.

I also coached a club girls soccer team again this spring, and will be an assistant high school girls coach this fall. Coaching is a big time commitment, but I very much enjoyed it. I’m looking forward to a few years down the road when I can start to coach Cashel and his friends just like my dad coached me!

Cashel and his buddy, Keagan

We love our church, especially the other young families there. Cashel’s got lots of buddies in the nursery already, and we’re so thankful that he will grow up with a great group of friends. Our small group went through a parenting book this spring, which was very pertinent for us. It was wonderful to candidly discuss parenting decisions and issues with friends as we were learning how to parents a little guy rapidly maturing into a toddler.

// Reflection //

Mother's Day 2013

A year-ish ago, the Mother’s Day / vacation / Father’s Day season was one of the more miserable of our lives. We were just a few months removed from having a child taken away from us after caring for him for 8 days, and happy families seemed to be everywhere we went. We enjoyed time with friends and family, sure, but it was extremely difficult to not be selfish and have those moments tainted with bitterness. We still don’t understand why we've had children “taken” away from us on more than one occasion, but we are so thankful that Cashel is in our lives. It just feels so right, like we’ve always known that he was coming. We feel blessed. That’s not to say that things wouldn’t have worked out with other kids - I have no doubt they would have - but for whatever reason, Cashel was brought into our lives as our first-born, and we are extremely thankful to call him our son. Getting to celebrate our first Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, as well as to take him on family vacation, were some of the happiest moments of our lives.

We are hoping to have more children soon, both biologically (if it is possible for us), and also via adoption. So we’d appreciate prayers for wisdom as far as how much we should try to get pregnant verses seeking to adopt again. One thing is for certain: Cashel loves other kids and needs some siblings to play with and to steal some of the limelight away from him!

I'll be sure and try to update in sooner than 6 months! Thanks, as always, for reading.

Cason